Judge favors Southold Town in Ferry District suit
A preliminary injunction to prevent Southold Town police from occupying a Fishers Island property, as part of a lawsuit filed by the Fishers Island Ferry District May 29, was denied by the judge overseeing the case in a Sept. 9 non-final disposition.
The $2 million lawsuit alleges Southold police officers “cut locks with crowbars and ejected all property and people from,” 357 Whistler Ave. around Jan. 1, “at the direction of the town and the Town Board.”
In a July 16 letter to the Suffolk County Supreme Court, Southold Town Police Chief Steven Grattan said the allegations that police cut the locks off and ejected people and property from 357 Whistler Ave. were “blatantly false.” He said that it was a “vacant, unoccupied, town-owned property.”
The lawsuit alleges that Southold Town, the Town Board and the police department violated due process, donative intent and state property law when they seized control of the residential property nine months ago.
The ferry district obtained a rental permit for the property from the town on June 14, 2023. Justice Joseph Farneti acknowledged the rental permit in his Sept. 9 non-final disposition.
“However, this permit does not confer any right to any entity to occupy or possess the premises in the nature of a lease or rental agreement,” Mr. Farneti wrote.
Southold police assumed policing duties on Fishers Island in November 2023, shuttling back and forth for five-day tours, after state troopers left the island over concerns about living conditions at their barracks at 752 Whistler Ave.
A Dec. 17, 2024 Town Board resolution greenlit use of the property as a temporary police barracks on the island. Mr. Farneti noted that the lawsuit was filed May 29, some five and a half months after the Town Board’s action on Dec. 17, 2024.
“The Ferry District [offers] neither legal nor practical justification to nullify or amend the Town Board’s official action,” Mr. Farneti wrote in the non-final disposition.
The judge said ferry district lawyer Keith Corbett’s argument that Southold Town Board greenlit the ferry district’s retention of legal representation in a Nov. 19, 2024, resolution “somewhat perplexing,” since police occupation of the 357 Whistler Ave. property didn’t happen until a month later. The Nov. 19, 2024, resolution approved “representation in corporate matters,” as noted in the Ferry District Board of Commissioners’ Nov. 14 resolutions list.
“In the absence of a specific grant of authority to maintain this action, the Ferry District is without independent authority to do so,” Mr. Farneti wrote.
His decision noted the Town Board’s “sole discretion” and authority to allocate town assets between and among its departments to ensure the “orderly administration of government” in these circumstances.
Mr. Corbett’s argument that the Town Board greenlit the ferry district’s retention of legal representation in reference to this lawsuit “was the cornerstone of the Ferry District’s threshold argument,” Mr. Farneti wrote.
Despite the denied preliminary injunction, the case remains ongoing.
“Today’s decision in no way alleviates the Town of Southold from the unconstitutionality of their draconian actions,” Mr. Corbett told The Suffolk Times in a Sept. 9 interview. “The Town had no legal basis to forcibly remove the FIFD from their real property. We look forward to proving our case in court.”
